Synopsis

Through a combination of extensive archival material and intimate interviews, Doolin’s film explores the political life of one of the icons of the civil rights struggle in Northern Ireland. Bernadette Devlin was elected MP for Mid-Ulster when she was 21 years-old and still a student, and briefly rattled the Westminster establishment. She witnessed the Bloody Sunday massacre, and went on to co-found the Irish Republican Socialist Party. She survived an assassination attempt while campaigning for the H-Block hunger strikers in the early 1980s. Now into her sixties, she remains just as articulate and uncompromising, critical of the Good Friday Agreement while still deeply passionate about – and engaged in – community politics.

*This feature film will be preceded by the screening of the short film “Runners” (2009, 16′, colour, English) dirs.: Ronan and Rob Burke*

** Director Lelia Doolan will attend the screening and lead a discussion with the audience following the film**

Trailer

Director biography

Lelia Doolan has enjoyed a varied and distinguished career for more than 50 years. Most notably, she was a pivotal member of a group of young, innovative, and socially conscious broadcasters who nurtured the national broadcaster, RTÉ, in its tender, early years in the mid 1960s. In 1969 she departed RTÉ in protest at the station’s growing bureaucracy and cultural conservatism. Later, Doolan served as Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and as Chair of the Irish Film Board. She founded the Galway Film Fleadh in 1989 and pioneered a millennium project — Fís na Milaoise (the Cinemobile) — Ireland traveling cinema. She has also been a journalist, film producer, lecturer and broadcaster.